What is Cluely? What recruiters should know

Cluely is an app for desktop computers. It listens in on a video call, scans what is on the screen and puts suggestions written by AI into a window that screen sharing is not supposed to pick up. At launch it was advertised as a tool for cheating in job interviews. Below is an account of what Cluely is and how an interviewer can respond.

Where Cluely came from

Its predecessor was Interview Coder, which fed candidates AI-generated answers during coding interviews. The two people behind it, Roy Lee and Neel Shanmugam, were suspended by Columbia University in March 2025 because of it. Cluely followed on April 20, 2025. The launch campaign encouraged cheating with it on job interviews, exams and more.

The company claimed 70,000 sign-ups within a week of launch, according to Wikipedia's article on Cluely. Funding came in two rounds: $5.3 million in April 2025, then $15 million in June 2025 with Andreessen Horowitz as lead investor. The total is $20.3 million.

What the app does during a call

Call audio and screen contents go to a large language model. Its suggestions come back in an overlay that is meant not to show up when the screen is shared. This design is common among interview assistants, as how AI interview assistants work explains.

What has changed since launch

The public criticism had an effect. Late in April 2025, references to exams and interviews disappeared from Cluely's marketing, and by November 2025 the company was calling the product an AI meeting assistant, in the same category as Otter.ai. Wikipedia reports independent tests in which responses arrived 5 to 90 seconds late and were often generic. None of this stops a candidate from running Cluely or a similar app in an interview.

Whether an interviewer can see it

In most cases no, and sharing the entire screen makes no difference. Its effects are visible, though, and its usefulness can be reduced.

• Every answer begins with a pause and then flows smoothly, while the candidate's eyes cross the same area of the screen. One pause means little, because nerves cause pauses as well. A repeated pattern means more.
• Questions about the candidate's personal work blunt it. Examples are in how to stop AI during an interview with the questions you ask.

Further signs are in signs a candidate is using AI.

Frequently asked questions

Do candidates still use Cluely in interviews?

They can. The product is now sold as a meeting assistant, and a candidate remains free to launch it in an interview.

Will screen sharing stop Cluely?

It will not. What a shared screen does reveal is the candidate moving to a different window.

Does using Cluely in an interview break the rules?

Only the rules you have set, which is a reason to state them to candidates in advance. A sample policy is included in how to stop AI use in interviews.